"Travellercon" Topic

Report from Travellercon 2014.

I took my son up to Lancaster host to try out the roleplaying game Traveller. I used to play it back in the 80s, but had wandered off from the classic source for SF gaming. Anyway, I came across my old little black books and remembered how fun it was. So, off we went. It was quite different going to the host for a small event, though it was noticeably interesting the event was a short distance from a convention on mind control and hypnotism (for the non-Traveller player such abilities are in the game mechanics and a player race). Back to Travellercon. It was well run and a fun time. They had 2 vendors, a tee shirt and snack food. The staff and DMs were pleasant, and well versed with the games they were running. (The DM for my game was the writer of the scenario, Greg Lee.) He really engaged the players and got everyone into the storyline. There have been many war games where I couldn't wait for it to end, not with Greg. The time seemed to fly by. I had my 11 year old with me, and was concerned he might not get into classic roleplaying. I was sure wrong about that. He is still talking about his character. Greg definitely helped by being new player friendly and having a scenario that shook up the classic shoot fest (though we did have an Aslan team in battle armor) and turned it into something more with the circus performer back story. Games were about 1/3 miniatures, 2/3rd roleplaying. I suggest checking it out next year. Fun without the overwhelming size of the bigger con a few weeks later. A good ramping up to Cold wars? Or maybe, next year, they might roll their event into Cold Wars with a large room to themselves. I am definitely putting it on my calendar, either way.

I'm glad you guys had a great time. I haven't played a lot of Traveller, but I like the game.

What versions, or was it all versions, were games using? Over on RPG forums, you still get threads about people asking whether to start with Classic, Mongoose, or the new T5 book. Plus there is GURPS Traveller, Traveller New Era, and Traveller 2300.

I recommend this site

link

has a lot for all versions of traveller

The game I played was T5. I saw Mega traveller and Imperium miniature rules being used. However, I couldn't stay all weekend and it looked like they allow ganes from any rule set. I too, kind of wonder at the variety of flavors now available. In the long run it didn't seem to matter all that much, but someone with more experience could clue us in. To me, the biggest difference with the classic Traveller I'm familiar with that I saw was the acceptance of the different evolution computers took in our world. Remember, the original game came out in 1977. The same year as the Apple II and the TRS-80! I also saw character skills were a bit more varied, but watered down some. One interesting difference in the different flavors is the use of dice. In classic Traveller, Mega Traveller, and Mongoose Traveller, you use 2 D6, in New Era and Traveller 20 you use a D20, in T4 and T5 you use different numbers of D6 depending on how hard the action is and Gurps uses 3D6. Kind of silly splitting hairs difference to me, but, I guess, it just shows how long this game system has been around. Most war game rules have gone thru a similar process, but just don't have as a connected manufacturing theme.

I wish I could have been there. It's still, for me, the best RPG ever.

I've never played Traveller, I had Star Frontiers. But I always wondered how the two games compared.

Star Frontiers by the book always seemed silly to me--the fluff was very junior high schoolish. The rules, however, are a pretty decent percentile based system and often get recommended as a base to start from for people looking for a generic sci-FI rpg.

EJNashIII – Thank you for the kind words. You are correct; at TRAVELLERcon/USA we welcome all versions of Traveller.

Unlikely we would roll into COLD WARS, though you will probably see our Away Team running some Traveller-themed games there.

As for next year, we're already negotiating for the same weekend in 2015. It was kinda odd, being at the Host for a small event – OTOH, it makes for a more relaxed event.

Best regards,
Keith Frye – Convention Coordinator
travellercon-usa.com
link

My pleasure. So, did you know the Zhodani rented the big room across the hall? Quite a coincidence? They were having classes on mind reading and hypnotism over there.

Yes – we plan to expand into those rooms over time. Push back the frontier, as it were.

: )

K-

Any contention is really just between the fans, the designers and owners are on good terms.

Mongoose Traveller and T5 are current with Mongoose Traveller being licenced from FFE. It's older and better supported. T5 is only a year old and is a bit of a brilliant disaster. So much potential, so many errors. I think people are too hard on it given the scope of what it tries to do.

Far Future Enterprises has all of the editions available on CD and many of the books in print.

But me and my disposable ultimate laser rifle are going to hop into my Fast Personal Grav Transport and fly off into the sunset.

Being that the flaws to T5 from what I read seem to be mainly the lack of a good index and some editing, couldn't they just put out pdf index you can print out and stuff in the back? Then, just put it in the next printing. Or are there other problems? Also, is Mongoose or anything else compatible with T5? On my part, I wonder if the one book to rule them all approach was right for T5. It looks really nice, but the price seems steep for something that is so questioned. Funny as a dozen little books probably is more expensive overall, but that marketing system at least never felt as rough on the pocket in one big shock. Also, just from seeing it the stores, the one book approach means the whole system seems unsupported. I.e., 1 book on a shelf vs 15 for some other system. Seems that might be a turn off for someone new.

I've always thought of Traveller as being inter-compatible. I use adventures from across the various versions. I just shoe-horn them into whatever system I'm using – usually MegaTraveller.

Regards,
Keith F.

T5 is most compatible with T4. Skills tend to be two or three times what they are in other editions. Mongoose Traveller is closer to MegaTraveller.

I think the biggest complaint people have with T5 is the nd6 difficulty system. Marc's got a pretty impressive mathematical proof that it's better in some ways and he's pretty stuck on it.

There's a nice bit of errata and some clairifications but I think the biggest problem is the sheer volume of the work. When it comes to doing an official index the problem is that it needs to be compatible with the revised edition, not the current one.